José Contreras is a sagely father figure in the realm of Canadian indie rock. His prolific project By Divine Right is infamous as a training ground of sorts for a number of the musicians responsible for the resurrection of independent rock in Canada, himself included. Brendan Canning and Leslie Feist of Broken Social Scene, Loel Campbell of Wintersleep and Brian Borchedt of Holy Fuck are just some of the musicians that cut their teeth in By Divine Right with Contreras before heading out to make names for themselves.A constantly evolving project, By Divine Right got its start in 1989 and has been cranking out jagged, crunchy, pop-laden indie goodness ever since.The band has always been a revolving door of musicians, with talented individuals coming and going while contributing what they can to Contreras’ sardonic sonic adventures before heading back out into the world. With well over 20 musicians having lent a hand to recording and touring, the sound of By Divine Right change as frequently as the tides. After 25 years, that’s resulted in a whole mess of amazing and diverse records by the group, with Contreras at the epicentre of everything, like a wise and skilled conductor, orchestrating a lush, deft symphony of chaos.However, after 25 years, Contreras has decided to try his hand at going it alone, releasing his first ever solo album, a self-titled affair consisting of stripped down re-recordings of By Divine Right tunes stretching from early days to extremely recent compositions. Contreras was kind enough to let us give you the first listen of the beautifully sparse opening track, "Listen to My Angels," a reworking of a track off of By Divine Right’s great 2004 release Sweet Confusion. To find out why he’s calling it a solo album and not just another By Divine Right release, we sat down with Contreras to talk about how the idea came about in the first place, and the mind-boggling amount of projects he’s juggling right now alongside this record.
Jose Contreras: It’s all love of music. Sounds and words and moments. I’m just walking down my path. I mean I have no plan, other than chasing inspiration down that path. It all stems from a huge passion for more music. Now, I feel like I’m more fascinated than ever — distilling the beauty, watching it becoming more and more pure.Did you initially want it to be a kind of revolving door project, or was that just how it grew?
That’s just how it’s worked out. I didn’t think about it too much. By Divine Right was never “that group of friends that got together and the magic was there” kind of band. It’s not that blessing, nor that curse. It started in the basement on my 4 track and then it grew from there. We were quite shitty for years. Like… five or six years. Actually it was when the first real band broke up and the first official “new line up” came together in ’96 that By Divine Right got markedly better, so maybe you’re right, it’s true, when new band members came in I could finally steer the boat in the direction I felt the music needed to go in. Some band members just get it. They get By Divine Right, they believe in it.Right now though, I have to say that the three of us, Lysh [Haugen] and Geordie [Dynes] and me, are feeling pretty good. Pretty obvious to anyone who’s seen us play in the last six months. I mean, there have been plenty of lucky magic shows in the past three years, but we’re into a new territory now. Like, we serve the higher power of the By Divine Right and everyone gets it. This is an unprecedented line up for By Divine Right. We’re making our records together, and you know it sounds like the perfect By Divine Right sound. I’m not sure there will be another lineup. This might be it.25 years is a long time, did you ever reach a point where you thought “I don’t know if I want to keep doing this”?
Every day. I mean life is long but time is precious. If I wasn’t excited about what I’m doing I would go do something else. When it’s flowing it's hard to stop it. As long as it keeps flowing, I’ll be doing it.So, after 25 years, what made you want to release a solo album now?
Well, it wasn’t my idea. My pal Lee Maslin from Squirtgun records approached me with the idea last year, and then facilitated the whole process, from recording to pressing the vinyl to hand delivering copies to stores in Toronto. He even stipulated that if I wasn’t happy with the record that I would not be obligated to release it.This album is an interesting one in the way that, it’s a solo album but the songs are reworked By Divine Right songs. Why did you decide to put it out under your own name?
It’s under my name, I guess, because there is no “band” on the record. It’s funny because there are plenty of By Divine Right songs that are “solo” in the sense that I played all the instruments. But this one is just me at the microphone, with a guitar or at the piano singing by myself, so it makes sense.How did you choose which songs to re-work for the record, and more importantly, are there any tasty b-sides and outtakes waiting in the wings?
The night Lee first asked me if I would consider recording a solo record for him to release on his label, we were hanging out at my old house in the country, listening to tunes having dinner, hanging with our families, having drinks and stuff. I liked the idea but was in the studio finishing a By Divine Right record and on the go all the time. I wasn’t sure I would have the time to put together an album of new tunes. His whole point was that the record should be 100% stress free, just recording me with a guitar, nice and simple. I went to put my son to bed, when I came back Lee had made a list of songs of mine that he said he would love to hear me sing solo without a band. I was happily surprised about that, real A&R, a lost art it seems.I added some songs to the list that I had always wanted to re-sing, to give them another shot. Then it became clear when we started recording what was going to work. It kind of figured itself out. There are a bunch of tracks left over from the recording; we tracked a lot of songs. When we started to finish the record, we had to focus on the final group of songs. So we left songs off because of track order reasons, most of which I left to Lee and he did a great job. As soon as I recorded "Listen to My Angels" he said, “This is the first song on the album,” and then after that, it was like “This is the last song on side one,” or “This is the first song on side two,” or “This is the last song on the album.”
Oh yeah, I have an album of songs coming together quite naturally, planning on recording this fall. Songs that are for performing quietly by myself.By Divine Right’s last album was released in 2013, but do you guys have plans to start on a new one or tour anytime soon?
I’m just finishing the mix on the last song of the new By Divine Right record! It’ll go to mastering at the end of June. We’re super pumped about it. Tracked live last year, I’ve finally had time to mix it! I’ve also started envisioning the next By Divine Right record after that, which has a more experimental concept behind the songs. It’ll be called “onomatopoeia”. We’re pretty excited about that too. It’s based on sounds.I’ve also just finished a soundtrack for a movie I was in called Porch Stories which will come out this year. The soundtrack is Laura Barrett and me, mostly improvisations on kalimba and classical guitar, super lovely. There are a few songs on there too, and I gotta say, they’re pretty killer.Have you ever toyed with the idea of having a 25th or 30th anniversary show and just getting as many past members of By Divine Right together as you can and just holding one gigantic blow-out show?
It has come up. People have proposed it to me over the years. It would be fun I guess. At the same time I don’t look back too often, By Divine Right is kind of about what I’m doing now. I bet it’ll happen eventually. I’ve never felt too comfortable being celebrated though, so I’ll leave to other folks to organize. I just feel lucky to have opportunity to do my work. There is so much I want to get done!Nick Laugher is a writer living in Montreal - @largiantribune---Hold your drink with Loud Larry Ajust, bring out the dusty crutches with Kieran Blake, or get under the sheets with Motel Raphael.
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Noisey: You’ve been putting out records with By Divine Right for 25 years now, what’s it been like to see that project develop and evolve over the years?
Jose Contreras: It’s all love of music. Sounds and words and moments. I’m just walking down my path. I mean I have no plan, other than chasing inspiration down that path. It all stems from a huge passion for more music. Now, I feel like I’m more fascinated than ever — distilling the beauty, watching it becoming more and more pure.Did you initially want it to be a kind of revolving door project, or was that just how it grew?
That’s just how it’s worked out. I didn’t think about it too much. By Divine Right was never “that group of friends that got together and the magic was there” kind of band. It’s not that blessing, nor that curse. It started in the basement on my 4 track and then it grew from there. We were quite shitty for years. Like… five or six years. Actually it was when the first real band broke up and the first official “new line up” came together in ’96 that By Divine Right got markedly better, so maybe you’re right, it’s true, when new band members came in I could finally steer the boat in the direction I felt the music needed to go in. Some band members just get it. They get By Divine Right, they believe in it.Right now though, I have to say that the three of us, Lysh [Haugen] and Geordie [Dynes] and me, are feeling pretty good. Pretty obvious to anyone who’s seen us play in the last six months. I mean, there have been plenty of lucky magic shows in the past three years, but we’re into a new territory now. Like, we serve the higher power of the By Divine Right and everyone gets it. This is an unprecedented line up for By Divine Right. We’re making our records together, and you know it sounds like the perfect By Divine Right sound. I’m not sure there will be another lineup. This might be it.
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Every day. I mean life is long but time is precious. If I wasn’t excited about what I’m doing I would go do something else. When it’s flowing it's hard to stop it. As long as it keeps flowing, I’ll be doing it.So, after 25 years, what made you want to release a solo album now?
Well, it wasn’t my idea. My pal Lee Maslin from Squirtgun records approached me with the idea last year, and then facilitated the whole process, from recording to pressing the vinyl to hand delivering copies to stores in Toronto. He even stipulated that if I wasn’t happy with the record that I would not be obligated to release it.This album is an interesting one in the way that, it’s a solo album but the songs are reworked By Divine Right songs. Why did you decide to put it out under your own name?
It’s under my name, I guess, because there is no “band” on the record. It’s funny because there are plenty of By Divine Right songs that are “solo” in the sense that I played all the instruments. But this one is just me at the microphone, with a guitar or at the piano singing by myself, so it makes sense.How did you choose which songs to re-work for the record, and more importantly, are there any tasty b-sides and outtakes waiting in the wings?
The night Lee first asked me if I would consider recording a solo record for him to release on his label, we were hanging out at my old house in the country, listening to tunes having dinner, hanging with our families, having drinks and stuff. I liked the idea but was in the studio finishing a By Divine Right record and on the go all the time. I wasn’t sure I would have the time to put together an album of new tunes. His whole point was that the record should be 100% stress free, just recording me with a guitar, nice and simple. I went to put my son to bed, when I came back Lee had made a list of songs of mine that he said he would love to hear me sing solo without a band. I was happily surprised about that, real A&R, a lost art it seems.
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He had a clear vision for that; I just sang my heart out. After the dust settled we went back to listen to the remaining tracks and were pretty happy and surprised at what we found. The sessions were really magic. So there is an accompanying EP that we’re putting together from the rest of the sessions, I think there are five more songs.After putting this out, do you think you’ll pursue an album of originals under your own name down the road, or is this a one-off of sorts?
Oh yeah, I have an album of songs coming together quite naturally, planning on recording this fall. Songs that are for performing quietly by myself.By Divine Right’s last album was released in 2013, but do you guys have plans to start on a new one or tour anytime soon?
I’m just finishing the mix on the last song of the new By Divine Right record! It’ll go to mastering at the end of June. We’re super pumped about it. Tracked live last year, I’ve finally had time to mix it! I’ve also started envisioning the next By Divine Right record after that, which has a more experimental concept behind the songs. It’ll be called “onomatopoeia”. We’re pretty excited about that too. It’s based on sounds.
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It has come up. People have proposed it to me over the years. It would be fun I guess. At the same time I don’t look back too often, By Divine Right is kind of about what I’m doing now. I bet it’ll happen eventually. I’ve never felt too comfortable being celebrated though, so I’ll leave to other folks to organize. I just feel lucky to have opportunity to do my work. There is so much I want to get done!Nick Laugher is a writer living in Montreal - @largiantribune---Hold your drink with Loud Larry Ajust, bring out the dusty crutches with Kieran Blake, or get under the sheets with Motel Raphael.